


What You Leave Behind

by fhsa_archivist



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Challenge Response, Episode Related
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-13
Updated: 2007-09-13
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:25:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhsa_archivist/pseuds/fhsa_archivist
Summary: Set after The Return(minor spoilers).  Lorne is set to leave the Pegasus Galaxy.





	What You Leave Behind

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Haven, the archivist: This story was originally archived at [Fandom Haven Story Archive (FHSA)](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Haven_Story_Archive), was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2016. To preserve the archive, I began working with the OTW to transfer the stories to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. If you are this creator and the work hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Fandom Haven Story Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/fhsa/profile).

  
Author's notes: Pairing is Lorne/Parrish  


* * *

Evan Lorne stared dully at the collection of bags on the floor of his quarters. One duffel bag, a rucksack, and a medium weight Air Force-issued packcase, half-full. It wasn’t much to show for 18 months of his life, but then he’d always been a light traveller. 

 

From family vacations to road trips back at college, he’d always packed minimally, never wanting to be bothered with lugging heavy luggage around, never needing to be tied to a certain level of comfort despite his somewhat privileged childhood. His packing habits had carried over to his stint in the Air Force and stood him well in his current – and very privileged - assignment on the Atlantis Expedition, which was about to come to a grinding and less than spectacular end.

 

His summa cum laude Geology degree from Georgia Tech had gotten him into the Stargate program, but it had been his time here that had made him a valuable, recognized part of it. He’d finally shed the stigma of being a science geek and become the go-to guy, the guy they came to first when they needed something accomplished, with escort details and extended missions in the Pegasus Galaxy. Here he’d been the commander of an Ancient warship, more powerful than anything the Air Force, the Go’auld or the Ori had floated to date. Here he’d come into his own. 

 

He packed his little-used violin, the one his grandfather had given him, carefully into the packcase and folded a variety of t-shirts and blue BDUs around it. His paints he’d given to Teyla for the Athosian children – they weren’t worth packing all the way back to Earth when in a day he could just buy more.

 

That’s kinda how things were. Forty-eight hours ago the tubes of paints, his canvasses, and the expensive little brushes had been a precious commodity in short supply. All that had changed with the coming of the Ancients. With their expulsion of the humans who’d come to call the City home. Now the paints were an ordinary item that could be purchased on a whim at a local store, something that wasn’t worth packing all the way back to Earth from the Pegasus Galaxy.

 

General O’Neill had congratulated him, told him his performance here had not gone unnoticed by the higher echelon and even hinted there might be more than just another team in his future. A promotion now would put him ahead of the track he’d set for himself in the Air Force.

 

But everything he’d gained, everything he was taking with him, it all paled in comparison to what he was leaving behind.

 

He dropped his packcase off to be loaded onto Daedalus and shouldered his duffel and rucksack, heading for the Gateroom. He waited, watching the Expedition members file into the event horizon one by one, or twos, all of them looking behind them as they did, taking one last look at the room, now occupied by Atlanteans – Ancients, real ones. He didn’t stand in as much awe of them as he had before.

 

“Major?” Sheppard’s voice broke into his thoughts. “You coming?” he asked, as if it were an option.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Lorne lifted the duffel and walked into the swirling, liquid mouth of the Gate, not looking back. There was nothing left for him to see, not anymore. 

 

 

Teyla moved through the tents her people had erected hastily at the new settlement. Tomorrow they would start foraging and scouting missions to find a more suitable location, but for now this would do. Everyone had a place, a home, had the things they needed. There were even a few comforts, a cache of weapons and a good supply of food, thanks to items left behind by the humans. Near her own tent, where she had set him up, a lone figure piled small twigs and dry grass in the center of a hollowed out pit rounded by smooth river stones. He built a pyramid before lighting it with a Zippo marked with the same design as the Atlantis Expedition patch.

 

“You should conserve your fuel,” she said, moving to join him.

 

“It’s okay, I can make more, “ he replied factually, softly, piling larger sticks onto the flame, then still larger ones.

 

“We are very glad you are here with us.” 

 

He blinked back a sudden brightness that rose in his eyes. 

 

“I am, too. It was the right decision. For everyone.”

 

“Because Major Lorne's superior officers would not have understood?” she asked with unnerving prescience. There were human customs she neither understood nor cared to. Putting restrictions on who one loved was not part of her people and their ways and in this she felt they were far superior to their Terran counterparts.

 

“Not just them, but certainly them most importantly. And I didn’t want him to give up his career – “

 

He stopped speaking, concentrating instead on adding to the fire in front of him.

 

“He offered to?” she asked.

 

“I think he might have been going to.”

 

“So instead of allowing him to give up his career, you gave up your planet.”

 

He grinned sheepishly. “It seems a little drastic when you put it that way,” he tried to grin but the expression fell flat. 

 

Teyla smiled.

 

“You may have given up your planet, but you have not given up your home,” she promised him, laying her fingers on his arm. “It is here, with us now. And I believe you will see him again. The way between our galaxies remains open, and I do not believe he will give you up so easily.”

 

Ronon joined them, squatting, the fire between he and them. He remained silent for a long while and the three of them watched the fire.

 

“It’s gonna be a cold night,” he finally offered enigmatically.

 

“I know,” Parrish sighed, poking at the fire and watching the sudden flurry of sparks rise into the darkened night sky and toward a distant spec of light in the faraway sky.


End file.
